Ang Lee(李安), Taiwan's pride and joy, expressed great disappointment with the local media after his long awaited espionage thriller, Lust, Caution (色戒), premiered at Cannes last week. The Oscar-winning director was miffed that the front-page reports of major print media focused only on the full-frontal nudity of Tony Leung (梁朝偉) and his provocative sex scene with Chinese actress Tang Wei (湯唯).
Admitting he almost had a nervous breakdown shooting the film's steamy sections, Lee said it was his duty to guide the actors through "hell," and this helped him make it through the testing scenes. He applauded both Leung and Tang for their exceptional performances.
To Fanny of the voluptuous girl outfit F4, however, the nudity in Lust, Caution doesn't seem that big of a deal. Against her agent's advice, the singer who "always talks craps" (in the words of her agent) walked up the red carpet at Cannes to see Lee Kang-sheng's (李康生) Just in Love (幫幫我,愛神).
Photo: Taipei Times
When asked what she thought of the sex scenes in Ang Lee's work, Fanny said Just in Love had just as much to offer because "Lee Kang-sheng also has his three points exposed," Chinese-language media reported.
Local singer-turned-high society dame Zhang Qing-fang (張清芳) returned to Taiwan from Hong Kong to celebrate her 41st birthday and threw a party for her 100-day-old son. With a husband whose assets are reportedly worth over NT$1 billion, Zhang's party was grand and attended by entrepreneur celebrities Terry Gou (郭台銘), Taishin Financial chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) and Acer Group founder Stan Shih (施振榮).
However, the husband, father and investment banker Sung Hsueh-jen (宋學仁) is a man repulsed by the limelight. Spotted by local media leaving the party last weekend, the 54-year-old banker ran back to the hotel at a lightening speed while reportedly shouting "Help! Guard, guard! Catch them!"
Photo: Taipei Times
Pop stop has to hand it to Sung since one has to be a resourceful businessman like him to come up with an innovative way to ditch the paparazzi in a split second.
On a more somber note, Hong Kong's megastar-turned-housewife Cherie Cheung (鍾楚紅) lost the love of her life when her husband of 16 years, the advertising genius Mike Chu (朱家鼎), died of cancer last week. The former sex goddess married Chu at the height of her career in 1991 and shocked the Chinese-speaking world by giving up the glitz and glamour of stardom for family life. Since her marriage she shunned the spotlight.
It is sad that death has parted the devoted couple, but fans of the 47-year-old star may see their beloved diva return to the big screen. According to Chinese-language media, Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (徐克) already has a project lined up for Cheung and megastar Chow Yun-fat (周潤發) has also called up his Hollywood friends to pave the way for the international comeback of his old friend.
All they wait for is a "yes" from the grief-stricken widow whose dream was said to be a carefree life with her beloved husband at their holiday resort, which is under construction in Bali, Indonesia.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist